A Toledo business owner has filed a lawsuit seeking class-action status over last week’s chemical release in north Toledo, naming the company at the center of the incident, its parent company and the terminal’s plant manager as defendants, according to Lucas County Common Pleas Court filings reported by 13abc and WTOL 11.
The suit was filed Oct. 23 by Todd M. Hartford and Hartford’s Fencing & Landscaping LLC against M.C. Tank Transport Inc., parent company Kenan Advantage Group Inc. and terminal plant manager Albert Dudek, 13abc reported. The filing lists claims of negligence, gross negligence or recklessness, nuisance and strict liability for an abnormally dangerous activity, according to 13abc.
The case stems from the Oct. 20 release of glycidyl methacrylate, or GMA, from a tank at the terminal at 1266 Progress Avenue. The City of Toledo said a 911 call alerted Toledo Fire & Rescue to an active release at 9:30 p.m. that night, and firefighters ordered everyone within one mile to evacuate at 10:48 p.m. because of a threat of explosion. Early Oct. 21, the city said, everyone within three miles was ordered to shelter in place based on preliminary plume modeling.
According to the complaint, as reported by WTOL 11, the defendants failed to keep adequate levels of a chemical stabilizer in the tank, failed to properly monitor its temperature and pressure, and failed to inspect and maintain its safety systems. The suit also argues that storing the chemical in bulk so close to homes and businesses was reckless, and that venting the tank to relieve pressure allowed the release to keep reaching the surrounding community, WTOL 11 reported. Those claims are allegations in a civil complaint; no court has ruled on them.
The complaint estimates about 1,379 people in 581 housing units lived inside the one-mile evacuation zone and about 49,527 people in 22,940 housing units lived inside the three-mile shelter-in-place area, including some in Monroe County, Michigan, according to the reporting by 13abc and WTOL 11 on the filing. It says at least 389 businesses and facilities sit within three miles of the terminal, 35 of them inside the evacuation zone. Hartford says he was displaced from his home and his business had to close, according to the filing, and he is asking the court to certify a class of displaced residents and businesses forced to close or limit operations, seeking compensatory and punitive damages.
The city’s timeline shows the evacuation zone shrinking as conditions improved — to a half mile on Oct. 21 and a quarter mile on Oct. 22 — before Toledo Fire & Rescue lifted it at noon Oct. 23 after the material release was verified complete. The city turned the site over to its owners that evening to complete cleanup under U.S. EPA oversight. In its Oct. 26 update, the city said EPA and Ohio EPA have begun oversight of cleanup, EPA air monitoring continues in the community, and an EPA mobile lab detected an extremely low level of glycidyl methacrylate on Oct. 24 that was below reporting and screening levels, with no additional detections in follow-up sampling.
For residents, the city says tap water was not affected, all roads and waterways have reopened, and the Toledo-Lucas County Health Department has issued guidance on ventilating and cleaning homes in the affected area, including discarding uncovered food left out during the exposure. The health department’s informational hotline is 419-779-7089. As of 13abc’s report, M.C. Tank Transport, Kenan Advantage Group and Dudek had not responded to the lawsuit’s allegations, and the court has not decided whether the case will proceed as a class action.